An exhibition at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery demonstrates how Lye strove to evoke concrete feelings through fleeting motion.
Len Lye
Posted inBooks
A History of Photography in Which the Camera Is Absent
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce’s 1826 or ’27 view from his window in France is the earliest known photograph taken with a camera, but it wasn’t even his first photograph.
Posted inArt
Sunshine Tinged with Noir at Paris Photo LA
LOS ANGELES — The red carpet at Paramount Pictures Studios didn’t lead to a movie premiere or an awards ceremony, but rather the Lower East Side — or at least its facsimile in the studio’s New York backlot, where brownstone and cast-iron buildings hosted pop-up galleries and bookshops. This was the second year that international photography fair Paris Photo returned to Los Angeles for its American offshoot.
Posted inArt
Keith Sonnier’s Tactile Formulations in Neon and Glass
Relatively speaking, Keith Sonnier’s interest in the connections between nature and technology has a long history. His early minimal-style, classical neons from 1968–1970 have a highly reductive, classical, nearly stoic appearance. The more recent formulations, though extravagantly tactile, were less evident in the beginning.
Posted inOpinion
When Ads Could Be Avant-garde
We often forget that many cutting-edge modern artists found funding and support by making ads. The work of New Zealand avant-garde filmmaker Len Lye is a case in point.
His films, like “Rainbow Dance” (1936) or the beautifully abstract “Colour Flight” (1938), were commissioned as advertisements to be shown at the cinema. The former was created for Post Office Savings Bank and the latter for Imperial Airlines.